bad names & gentrification

So I get a business card from a consultant at a meeting and the guy's name
is Gaylord. The meeting was boring as hell and my time could have been
spent better elsewhere, so I came up with a list of names I'm glad my
parents didn't name me.

Thank you mom and dad for not naming me:

Franklin
Jamal
Toby
Aloysius
Fauntelroy
Cleophus
Sherman
Aspiridio
Haberdashekiah
Fidel
Puffy
Willard
Enrique
Broderick
Bartholemew
Wilbert
Zutroy
Lester
Guantanamera
Vinx

I also would like to do a tribute to gentrification.

If you can get a cab to come to your house, say OWWWWW!

If you live near a Starbucks: HOLLLLAAAA!!!!

If the liquor stores in your hood sells decent wine and microbrews, wave
your hand in the airrrrrr!!!

If you got a dry cleaners on your block PUT YO HANDS UP!!

If you need a permit to park on your own street, say HOOOOOOOO

If you can get anything from Sushi to BBQ ribs DELIVERED to your crib,
Hollaaaaa!

If you can take a cab to the club for less than $10, screeeeeam!!!!

If you got REAL trees and a REAL lawn on your block....HOLLLAAAA

...if the taco stands in your hood are staffed by actual mexicans puerto
ricans, put 'em up! put 'em up!!!!

if the fire hydrant on your block hasn't been opened all summer THO YO
MOTHERFUCKIN HANDS UP!!!

With more than half of my block speaking english as a second language, my
neighborhood hasn't been gentrified yet, but it's coming. I look around and
I know it's coming.

I make fun of this shit, but in some cases gentrification is a psuedo-good
thing. It has brought a certain level of safety and diversity to the
neighborhood, but for some reason when gentrification happens in the black
areas, they just get rid of us and make shit way too expensive for anyone
that lived there before to continue to live there.

Where is the fine line between improving a neighborhood while allowing the
existing residents to continue to be able to afford to live there?
... tricky shit, and as an architect, I get asked to essentially design /
build / and support the displacement efforts of the people with money. This
internal moral struggle gets the best of me sometimes.

-c

CD of the moment: Jazzanova - "In Between"